Cardinal sin committed

[omc.cobra]

I did quite a bit of 1,000 yard shooting this summer with both a .300 Win Mag Sendero, and a Remington R5 Milspec in .308. Put hundreds of rounds through these and a couple ARs as well. Reloaded for them, would crank the scopes down to 200 yard zeros at times, back up to 1,000. So...deer hunting starts - set the Sendero at a 200 zero, and grab a Savage 300 WM out of the safe (a little lighter in case of pushing woods, etc) - didn't bother to check the zero (also switched to 180 gr Federal premium ammo with a Nosler Accubond bullet) - figured it was close enough for hunting - sighted in last year. Big mistake.

One morning - left the box stand, hadn't seen any deer but spotted a coyote at 100 yards, just walking along. Took a shot with the Savage - expecting good results - Missed!! One more shot as she jumped into the woods - missed again!! What the heck?? Went and set up a target at 100 yards - 6 inches high!! Probably parted the fur on her back. My son could not believe as meticulous about reloading and shooting as I am, that I would not check the rifle and ammo....... Couldn't disagree with him. Not sure how it could be 6 inches high, but it was... A good learning experience - may not have too many shots at a coyote like that one!!

 

[Firecat]

Be glad it happened on a coyote instead of a trophy buck! Lesson learned I imagine.

 

[1CouesHunter]

Thanks for Posting.... a great reminder to stay focused on rifle and load.

 

[captacademy]

Just had something similar happen. I shot at a 185 class mule deer at 825yards, a very do able shot for me. The bullet missed and hit about 36 inches to his right. I did not know what to think and thought it was shooter error. Placed my rifle on the 4 wheeler and noticed the windage knob was set a 5 MOA to the right. Checked the numbers for the distance I had just shot and found it was shooting 38" to the right. I learned a very big lesson, check your equipment.

I shot a good mulie the next day at 600 yards, but he was no where near as nice as the one I missed.

 

[elkstalker300]

Well I will tell on myself this year while we are at it, we wasnt seeing any elk one day so my buddies and I were all standing around the truck and I ranged a rock face at 1240 meters, dialed in my scope on my 338-378 and was getting to let one fly, all of a sudden a war broke out about a mile dwn the road so we all jumped in trucks and hauled dwn the road, someone had jumped a big herd of elk, by the time we got there they were gone so went back to the spot where I was going to shoot at the rock and was standing there and a bull came by at 150 yds, I pulled up and shot and wow I was way high and the bull ran off, opps I had forgot to reset to zero, LOL oh well isnt that where hunting camp stories come from,

 

[flyin lizard]

Got all of you beat in the doouugghh,, department,,,,, ever get side tracked at the exact wrong second and leave the ramrod IN the barrel of the muzzle loader.

IN short ,the gun was not damaged and my forehead is healing nicely..

 

[elkstalker300]

nope what was the results of that?

 

[captacademy]

Elkstalker 300 is right, it would not be hunting if everything went perfect all the time, we would not have any stories to tell of the one that got away!